Demise of Ebisu
by Brooke Chiang
Summary: A possible fate of Ebisu if Fujita's attempt to save her ended in fiasco...


In the Sorcerer's Realm...

Finding a comfortable seat on top of a giant mushroom, Fujita searched for the databank that En had given him, until he found one hit.

"Yes, there's one!" He tapped at the datapad to look into the file more closely. "Ebisu, huh? He looks awkward, and it doesn't start well… weird, I have the feeling I've met him somewhere before…"

Then the memory hit him- he'd seen that exact skull mask and the double sickles sometime… in the Hole! At the time, he was with Matsumura, who had just bought a bunch of hot dogs, the day that he… he…

"Ah!" Fujita exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "If he was there at the time, there is a good chance he's stuck there, since the access is blocked!"

He rushed to confront the sorcerer who had blocked off the door into the Hole. "I- I have to get him to open it- ! Or else- !"

Back in the city known as "the Hole"...

Thirteen-year old Ebisu walked over to the door back into the sorcerers' realm. A novice sorceress, she made her living by selling magic smoke in containers imbued with her own magical power.

After a day of mediocre sales, she was ready to head home to the sorcerer's realm, and get some rest.

"No matter what I do, the door just won't open." The young girl bemoaned, sighing in befuddlement. Something like this had never happened before in her experience. "I haven't seen any of the others here lately. This is weird… Did something happen on the other side?"

She felt someone tap on skull mask she wore, and say, "Yo, sorcerer!"

"Hmm?" Ebisu turned around, puzzled, only to come face-to-face with a hulking man with a fearsome lizard face.

"Let me chomp on that skeleton head of yours real quick."

Ebisu froze in fear, at the same time noticing a tall blonde woman stalking over to her from the other direction. The frightened girl gulped as the extent of her predicament hit her. 'Shit, I'm surrounded! What do I do? Should I fight my way out? Can I fight my way out?'

Her hand slipped closer together as she prepared to conjure defensive magic. And that's when all hell broke loose.

The blonde woman flew into action with great agility, leaping up, hitting and pushing off the alley's brick wall, and launched a brutal roundhouse kick that smashed Ebisu right in her face, violently discombobulating her.

Ebisu let a strangled cry of pain as she went flying. Despite having magic, she was pretty unskilled and inexperienced, while physically being no match for the martial skills of her battle-hardened enemies.

She hadn't even hit the ground before the lizard man slashed with his combat knife, slicing off all the fingers on her right hand, right above the magic rings she wore. Blood spurted from her severed digital arteries.

"Now then, let's see that face," The lizard man hoisted Ebisu up unceremoniously by grabbing the top of her head. Then he tore off Ebisu's skull mask.

"Eeep?!" Both the lizard man and the blond woman looked taken aback to see the face of a young teenage girl.

On her part, Ebisu could only stare wide-eyed in dazed horror, whimpering in both terror and pain as blood trickled out of her head wound, her nose, her mouth, and her severed fingers. The blond woman's devastating kick had left her with a concussion.

"Y- you were a girl?" The lizard man managed, flabbergasted.

"W-what should we do, Caiman?" The blonde woman asked the lizard man, on the verge of panic.

"Eh… Wh-wh-what you say…?" The lizard man named Caiman stammered, trying to get a grip of the situation. He turned back to the brutalized sorceress.

"Uah-ah-ah-uh-" Ebisu sniffled in terror and pain, her eyes wide with dread, wetting herself in the process.

"Kyeh!" Caiman closed his eyes for a moment, trying to crush the rising sympathy he had for the terrified little girl he was clutching. After a moment, he made up his mind and steeled himself, gritting his sharp fangs. "Fuck it! Like I care!"

With that, he opened his jaws wide and shoved Ebisu's head inside.

"Blurg!" Ebisu gasped as her head was shoved into his maw, panting and blubbering in terror.

A head began to emerge from the depths of the lizard man's esophagus like a demon-of-possession.

"I-Is s-someone there?" Ebisu squeaked, her voice trembling.

The face of a man with red paint around his eyes suddenly lunged forward to stare her right in the face.

"You…" It hissed, eyes narrowing.

Outside Caiman's mouth, a huge metal door materialized between the lizard man and his blonde accomplice, both gasping in shock. It was the door into the sorcerer's realm.

Caiman stumbled backward, Ebisu still firmly stuck and hanging from her mouth.

Then the door to the sorcerer's realm abruptly burst open, and a sorcerer wearing a red mask with a long nose lunged forth, grabbing Ebisu by the hand, and yanked violently.

Caiman refused to let go, his hands latching onto Ebisu's shoulders, while his jaws clamped down tighter.

"Eeeehhh-AAAAHHHH!" Ebisu began to scream in pain, as her body was trapped in this violent tug-of-war between Caiman and the sorcerer who'd appeared.

Neither, though, gave any ground, instead pulling at the poor girl harder.

"AAAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!" Ebisu shrieked, but to no avail, as Caiman's sharp teeth pierced the skin of her chin and forehead. "AAAA!"

Then in one violent motion, Caiman's grip slipped, and the sorcerer, yanked Ebisu free from her reptilian captor.

But in that instant, Caiman's clamping jaws sheared shut- the fangs slicing through the girl's skin. Like blades, the teeth sheared the skin of Ebisu's face, skinning the girl alive.

But the red-masked sorcerer slipped in the same instant, losing his grip on Ebisu's bloody hand, and tumbling backward down the stairs leading into the sorcerer's realm.

The sorcerer door guard slammed the entrance shut, shouting, "I closed it!"

"No, wait, she's still out there-!" The red-masked sorcerer exclaimed in horror.

"It's too late!" The guard retorted in alarm. "She's lost!"

Back in the alleyway, Ebisu lay in horrible agony on the floor, as can be expected with someone who has suffered a concussion, had her fingers sliced off, and had her faced skinned, all in a matter of minutes.

"Hey!" Caiman pounced forward and picked up the petite girl with his immense strength. "What did the guy inside say to you?"  
Ebisu was only able to whimper and sob incoherently in response. Her salty tears ran down the exposed muscle and subcutaneous fat of her face, causing her even more excruciating pain.

"Hey, what did he say?!" Caiman demanded again, shaking the mutilated teen.

"Y-You…" Ebisu mumbled, barely able to speak, her brain completely disconcerted and overwhelmed by the pain of her injuries.

"That's it? Eh, what's that supposed to mean?!" Caiman growled, shaking her violently. "Should I shove you back in?!"

Jerking back from the precipice of unconsciousness, the grievously-injured Ebisu began to scream in agony from her horrible avulsion injury and digital amputations. "GYAA! WAAAH!"

"Caiman, with that face, the guy inside isn't going to recognize her in a million years!" The blonde woman interjected, shouting over Ebisu's howls. "Let's just put the girl out of her misery."

Caiman closed his eyes and sighed. "In that case... " He drew his dagger again, this time holding it up to Ebisu's neck. "We don't need ya anymore." He raised the blade up high and slashed down, slicing in six different directions in a frenzy.

'Wha-?' The thought barely crossed Ebisu's tortured mind before her body exploded apart into meaty chunks, blood splashing all over the alley. Her head struck the ground and rolled like a bowling ball before coming to a stop against a gutter downpipe.

She could only see a section of pavement in a last few moments of hazy torment before everyone faded away.

"Eh? Caiman?!" The blonde woman exclaimed, stepping backward for a moment. "Wh- what the-?"

"Nikaido, is something wrong?" Caiman exclaimed, uncomprehending. "Ahh!" His head convulsed. "Ah, Nikaido, wh-what's- h-happening-?!"


End file.
